Blockage & Hernia and the week from he.....

I had my surgery back on July 26, 2010 and have been doing well up to last Friday.  I have taken this tool we have been given and have done everything that is recommended.  I eat well, exercise atleast 5 days a week and have gotten a trainer for 3 days a week.  I have lost about 60lbs and have 23lbs to go.  I still question my decision as I really do not enjoy eating anymore and it seems to be more of a hastle but everyone I talk to says "wait until next summer, you will love the decision you made" so we will see what happens then.  So on Friday I am sitting in a meeting and I started to feel the worst pain right under my left breast.  Needless to say the pain was so severe that I had to leave work and came immediately home and got in bed after taking GasX as I thought maybe that was the problem.  Well the pain persisted for 6 hours and finally I told my husband I needed to go to the ER as the pain was close to that of labor pains.  After a CT scan I was told that I had a blockage somewhere and they needed to operate immediately but could not tell me the severity until they got in there.  Luckily they operated and found that a piece of scar tissue had caused by bowel to form a knot and it was a pretty easy fix through the same incisions as my original surgery.  I also had a hernia that they repaired.  Saturday I woke up and felt like a million dollars so the hospital let me return home.  I slept the remainder of Saturday and the majority of Sunday.  On Monday I woke up, took a few sips of milk to get a pill down and immediately started vomitting.  Later on in the afternoon I tried some water and again started vomitting immediately.  SO....back to the emergency room we went and this time I was told that my bowel did not wake up after the surgery which means if nothing is coming out, nothing can go in.  I spent the next 3 days in the hospital on IV to get my fluids in waiting for my bowels to wake up.  Well now I am home and feeling good.  I guess the message to everyone is to listen to your body.  We all know what gas pain feels like but when you experience pain that feels different and is severe, go to the hospital.  I was lucky because I went in time but things could have turned out much worse if I had not listed to my body telling me something was wrong.

Dear Pajejo,

I'm so sorry to hear of your ordeal, but I'm glad you posted this and your message is on the money. We really do need to listen to our bodies. While what happened to you is rare, it can and does happen occasionally. 

I do understand what you are saying about not really 'enjoying' eating anymore, but as others have told you, this too will pass. I think that one of the things that that don't really tell you as you are going through this process is that life during the weight loss phase is very different from life once you lose your excess weight. I can just about guarantee you that you will enjoy eating again and you will have to learn to temper that and leverage your tool to help you as you maintain your hard won loses and all of the associated gains. The maintenance journey is a very different one than the weight loss journey and I'll bet that you will be very glad that you did this, even with this significant 'bump' in the road. 

Feel better soon,